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If you have discovered that you are pregnant, or have been planning a pregnancy, you may have already started thinking in “threes”. That is because most pregnant women are told to consider their “trimesters”. This is the 90-day periods of time by which a pregnancy is measured, but this is a bit of a flawed view.

Why? If you see the changes that you and your baby will go through on a weekly basis, you are going to want to take a less general look at things and really zoom in on each week instead.

For instance, your first trimester is going to include weeks one through twelve, and if you look at pregnancy on a week by week basis, you are going to see that you already have very clear signs of being pregnant as early as week four! This is when you will have already missed a period, may be experiencing some nausea or bloating, and even a bit of urinary frequency.

Of course, you may be like millions of other women and not have any symptoms until two to four weeks later. For instance, those in week eight tend to have a uterus swollen to the size of a small orange! This is when hormones are really “cranking” and when tender breasts, fatigue, and very clear signs of your pregnancy appear.

This takes us into the middle of the pregnancy, or the second trimester that runs from weeks 13 to 26. There is a tremendous amount going on during your pregnancy on a week by week basis now! For instance, at week 15 you are probably going to “start to show” (though experts agree that women will first appear pregnant from weeks 14 to 20). A few weeks after that the famous “linea nigra” appears between your belly button and pubic area. This is an indicator of the pressures developing in your uterus and a good sign of a growing baby!

By week 26, you may start to experience the common Braxton Hicks contractions and your baby is going to begin becoming extremely responsive. As we enter the final trimester, the pregnancy on a week-by-week basis is changing extremely quickly. At 30 weeks, you will have stretch marks and a bit of edema due to water retention. Your baby’s movements are very noticeable and you are probably hungrier than ever due to all of the growth occurring.

In the final ten weeks, many of the baby’s bodily organs and systems begin operating and the baby slowly drops into position for delivery!